India is considering a proposal from Russia to use a messaging system developed by the Russian central bank for bilateral payments as New Delhi isn’t following the US-led economic campaign against Moscow, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
Sources told Bloomberg that the plan involves using Russia’s messaging system, known as SPFS, for rupee-ruble-denominated payments. The proposal is expected to be discussed when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives in India for a two-day visit on Thursday.
The Russian proposal came after the US and its allies imposed sanctions cutting seven Russian banks from SWIFT, the main messaging system used for international financial transactions. Western sanctions also targeted Russia’s use of the dollar and euro, prompting Moscow to demand Europe pay for gas in rubles.
As the West is looking to limit its purchases of Russian energy, India is looking to buy more Russian oil at a discount price despite pressure from Washington to join the campaign against Moscow. India is also a major purchaser of Russian weapons, and the Biden administration is openly considering sanctions on New Delhi over its stockpile of Russian arms.
Last week, Biden said the US’s allies in Europe and Asia have presented a unified front since Russia invaded Ukraine, with the exception of India, which he described as having a “shaky” stance. India has abstained from condemning Russia’s attack on Ukraine at the UN.
India is a member of the Quad and is seen by the US as a counter to China in the region. But if the US goes ahead and sanctions India over its relationship with Russia, it will likely make New Delhi more hesitant about increasing military cooperation with Washington.
The USA can force many nations to follow its cruel sanction policy, but the majority of the world’s population not in the US-defined “international community” can see the folly of following a path benefiting only the USA,.
I am not even clear on how it really benefits the USA—apart from increasing weapon sales.
You’re right, it doesn’t work because it doesn’t hit the power structure; and while it kills and demoralizes many it enrages and engages more.
A form of torture (inflicting pain until submission) -resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, the poor, aged, infirm, and children- a war crime, but it’s a NeoCon specialty (in their “weapons toolkit”) and the relish of the late great feminist paragon, Madelaine Albright.
Oh yeah, Madelaine would relish the starvation of people in Afghanistan because of our theft, in violation of the Constitution.
Who cares about the 99%?
With the exception of Indis? Only Japan, South Korea and Singapore support US position in Asia!
India is in the large company of vast number of Asian countries not accepting US narrative.
NATO countries like Turkey are not on board with sanctions or demonuzing Russia. Neither is Hungary. And 2 other continents disagree.
I wonder if there is a pro-German political entity in Germany?
fun fact = the US imports at least 12 million and sometimes as many as 26 million barrels of oil from it’s mortal enemy russia every single month
Didn’t know that.
I’m not sure if that is still true.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/us/politics/biden-oil-ban-russia-ukraine-putin.html
The U.S. is doing a good job of pissing everyone off. They have expedited many countries plans of going around the dollar as they know that the lunatics in the U.S. Government can oppose sanctions on any of them for any number of reasons so why deal with the dollar?
It has been suggested to me that the Eurodollar (Cash held in European banks as dollars, but not regulated by the US Federal Reserve) is one of the most important reasons the US Dollar is so strong. If there is a move in Europe to bank in Euros (or any other currency), or if INSTEX Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges is used to bypass SWIFT, the US will find it much more difficult to apply sanctions.
But such a shift would disrupt trade between Europe and the US. Europe would have to be very very sure that the US needs trade with Europe more than Europe needs trade with the US to consider the idea. They would also have to be sure that the 100,000 troops we have on their soil would not respond negatively (our troops could leave and take their spending with them, or even “do something about it”.)
There are also likely financial forces at work that operate quietly behind the scenes. But I don’t know enough about that to discuss it intelligently.
Fragmentation of the financial system is the necessary result of the US use of its dominant position as a weapon.
The damage is not only to US control of banking. It is to the dollar itself. Moving away from dollar transactions reduces the dollar. Undermining the safety of T-Bills undermines the dollar.
Hubris is as normal leading to self harm by the arrogant.
I’m no expert. But I think Trump was the first President to apply secondary sanctions. By that, I mean that Trump was willing to sanction businesses in friendly and neutral countries for doing business with Iran. The sanctions against Iran were probably illegal. The sanctions against foreign companies (such as Huawei Telecom) doing business with Iran were a thinly veiled effort to rule the entire world.
As a response, alternatives to SWIFT were developed in Europe, Russia, and China.
Memories of India’s experience with England may serve them well, now that US policymakers seek to expand on what Trump did to Iran.
India is considering a proposal from Russia to use a messaging system..known as SPFS, for rupee-ruble-denominated payments….As the West is looking to limit its purchases of Russian energy, India is looking to buy more Russian oil at a discount price despite pressure from Washington to join the campaign against Moscow. India is also a major purchaser of Russian weapons, and the Biden administration is openly considering sanctions on New Delhi over its stockpile of Russian arms….India is a member of the Quad and is seen by the US as a counter to China in the region. But if the US goes ahead and sanctions India over its relationship with Russia, it will likely make New Delhi
more hesitant about increasing military cooperation withleave the Quad and say “adios Washington”.Well finally New Delhi does something significant. With Pakistan firmly within China’s Belt and Roadway DC just lost the subcontinent. Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are already invested in the BRI which was held back by New Delhi’s machinations. DC blundered out of Afghanistan after pummeling it with Drones on a daily basis for 20 years. DC can forget the Maldives. This is Fantastic !
Has New Delhi actually done something? Or are you speculating about what they might do?
It has bought Iranian oil using gold. It is one of tounding member of the non alignment movement
SWIFT is merely a messaging system remnant from a bygone era, before emails, even before the fax machine. So it’s not rocket science to come up with a replacement messaging system, it’s just because of governmental inertia and also that nobody had the courage to buck the US. Now they do. It goes along with the new multipolar (or no polar) world political situation.
And Russia better try to come up wit something, anything really.
Otherwise this will be really bad for them long term, they will indeed find themselves out in the cold by themselves.